There was an interesting piece in the Los Angeles Times concerning newspapers and readers' comments. In the piece, the columnist thinks that there shouldn't be interaction with readers.

The columnist is Joel Stein. I'm not familiar with his work, but he does make a couple of good points.

His first point concerns the push nature of columns in a newspaper. As he says:

Not everything should be interactive. A piece of work that stands on its own, without explanation or defense, takes on its own power.

He has a very good point. He uses Martin Luther's 95 Theses as an example, but seriously, a column isn't as important as that. But, a column is just a one way communication for a newspaper. It should stand alone. If someone wants to comment or rebut what is being said, they can do it on their own site.

The next point he makes is an interesting one. Joel believes that the proper etiquette doesn't exist for these types of communications:

Part of the problem is that no etiquette has yet been established for the hyper-interactive world. And I, born before MySpace and e-mail, don't feel comfortable getting a letter and not answering it. And then, if I do, suddenly, we're pen pals, with all those pen pal responsibilities.

While I don't know if I would go that far, I do know that many people have little etiquette when it comes to online communications. I think it's based on the fact people think they're anonymous when they sit behind a keyboard and hammer something out. They lose all respect for common decency.

It's a shame that Mr. Stein won't see if someone has that common decency.

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